Vermont’s New England cottontail record is the bleakest in New England: 19 reports since 2000, and NatureServe now lists the species as possibly extirpated from the state. What’s left of the record hugs the southwestern corner, with Bennington County holding 12 reports, Rutland 4, and Windham and Windsor counties the rest. The Green Mountain National Forest accounts for 13 of the total, mostly along its lower, southern edges where brushy understory still thickens.
The timing of reports is curious. December and January dominate, nine and six records respectively, which suggests winter tracking and survey work, not summer sightings, produced most of what Vermont knows. Cottontails are active all year, so a snow-season record is a search-effort artifact. Vermont sits at the northern edge of this rabbit’s range, where harsh winters and maturing forest both work against it. Whether the species is truly gone or just unconfirmed in its last thickets is an open question, and one more verified record from the Bennington area would change how that question gets answered.
Full species profile
